Dual monitor docking station query

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As always, my computing knowledge fails me but I'm happy to know that there are some very competent people here :)

So, my situation is as follows:
I have just picked up an Asus ZenBook Flip 13 from John Lewis to replace my dated PC. I will use the laptop away from home a lot of the time (hence my decision to buy it rather than another desktop).

I will need to connect it to a couple of 32 inch monitors, an external keyboard and mouse, a printer, internet (via LAN & wi-fi as needed) and a couple of external hard drives.

I am looking at the following items:

This USB-C hub for peripherals

This dual docking station for the hard drives currently in my PC

Will these two options do what I need?

Or should I be looking elsewhere / an alternative that I am unaware of?


Thanks as always, Kevin
 
I bet that's a lovely dock - Anker kit is usually good but this bit concerns me....

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I run 2 X 32inch 4k monitors off a Dell laptop but the only way I found to make them both work was to use one of these

Without it, the dock I use wouldn't run the second monitor. Or more accurately....since the dock only replicates ports the graphics card of the laptop wasn't sufficient to run 2 X 4k. It's possible the Anker will do it. If you have Prime then an option would be to buy the Anker and see if it works. If it doesn't then return for a different dock or be prepared to pay another £50 for what's basically an external graphics card.

The drive dock looks fine - but you only have 2 drives and don't plan to keep swapping them, why not just buy USB caddies. It would be tidier and cheaper. Personally I'd velcro them to the underside of my desk. Ugreen make decent affordable kit.
 
@JonathanRyan
Thank you for a comprehensive response - much appreciated.

You have given me food for thought re both options. I'll try the Anker dock and see if it works; if not, I'll try your suggested solution.

I hadn't thought about the caddy option. They are both 3.5inch SATA drives so I'll get a couple of caddies and see how it works.

Many thanks again, Kevin
 
I fully agree with my fellow Jonathan's suggestion to use caddies rather than the dual dock. I have a dual dock on my PC as I have a number of HDDs and SSDs that get dropped in there but they're not really intended for permanent use. IcyDock / IcyBox is probably the largest supplier of external caddies.

But, thinking about things a bit more, are your HDDs as old as your PC? Would it be worth buying something like a WD Elements external drive that's the combined size of the HDDs, copying your data across while they're still in the PC then retiring them?
 
Great suggestions on brands in here. The Iris Xe graphics that you've got in that laptop will support dual 4k screens, but you'll have to turn off the laptop screen whilst you're doing it to my knowledge, and you won't have HDR on the monitors (which you're unlikely to want anyways if you're editing photos).

I'm afraid what Jonathan suggests won't affect the outcome here as that's just a different type of adaptor - external graphics cards are still big expensive things.

Snapshot's suggestion on changing your storage solution is a really good one - it also gives you a better degree of portability if you ever need it. It's Prime Day tomorrow and Wednesday so that would be my window to try and pick up some bargains!
 
Snapsh0t said:
But, thinking about things a bit more, are your HDDs as old as your PC? Would it be worth buying something like a WD Elements external drive that's the combined size of the HDDs, copying your data across while they're still in the PC then retiring them?
Click to expand...
Good thinking there - a couple of 2tb ssds will be a good investment :)
 
Thanks for those answers - much appreciated.

Both monitors are running at 2560x1440 and the laptop monitor is also on, thanks to the anker hub - probably worth spending £70 on it.

Both hard drives have been synced, and a caddy is in use for the 4tb HDD and a 2tb SSD is on the way.

All in all, I'm very happy with it all.
 
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